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Here are the winners and losers in the Republican tax bill

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Wealthy Americans and business investors are among the big winners in House Republicans’ draft tax legislation while targets of President Donald Trump’s ire such as immigrants and elite universities were hammered. 

The tax plan is likely to undergo significant changes as it winds through the House and then the Senate. But the committees’ drafts released this week have set up initial goalposts. 

Here’s who’s winning and losing so far in the tax fight.

Winners

Multimillionaires

The rich would dodge a tax increase and gain the ability to pass more wealth on to their heirs in the bill approved early Wednesday by the House’s tax committee.

House Republicans omitted a proposal the Trump administration floated to raise the income tax rate from 37% to 39.6% on people with very high incomes. Instead, wealthy families get another tax break: the estate tax exemption will rise to $15 million for individuals and $30 million for married couples next year, and rise with inflation afterward. Moreover, their Trump tax cuts would become permanent.

Small business owners

The bill increases the pass-through business tax deduction from 20% to 23% and expands the definition of who can qualify. The deduction is available to owners of sole proprietorships, LLCs and partnerships.

Private equity

The carried interest tax break benefiting private equity, venture capital and real estate partnerships would survive again, despite the president’s push to eliminate it. Private equity also won an expanded interest expensing tax break.

Domestic car dealers

Up to $10,000 a year in loan interest for U.S.-made cars would be tax deductible through 2028, a boon to auto dealers looking to close sales. But the break phases out slowly for individuals with more than $100,000 in income and couples with more than $200,000. This new break will cost an estimated $57 billion in lost tax revenue.

Manufacturers

The bill revives several favorable tax rules for businesses, including bonus depreciation for the cost of production upgrades and a research and development tax break, winning the endorsement of the National Association of Manufacturers. Those breaks, however, would also be temporary. 

Elderly and tipped workers

In a nod to some of Trump’s populist campaign promises, taxpayers aged 65 and older would get a larger standard deduction, while tips and overtime pay would be exempted from income taxes. The provisions included limits to shrink their cost and would expire after 2028.

Parents

The child tax credit would increase from $2,000 to $2,500 through 2028. Newly minted parents could open up new “MAGA” investment accounts for their babies seeded with $1,000 from the government.

Corporations

Other tax increases that had been considered that would have hit big business, such as an increase in the stock buyback tax or a limit on the state and local deduction for corporations, were mostly rejected.

Defense contractors

The package boosts defense spending by $150 billion, with much of the funding going to new weapons systems made by major contractors.

Losers

Low-Income Americans

Some of the cost for the tax bill would be defrayed through cuts to Medicaid health coverage and food stamps, both of which benefit low-income Americans. House Republicans are seeking to impose work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid recipients up to 64 years old and beneficiaries would have to pick up more costs. 

The GOP also has proposed cuts to the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That includes expanding current work requirements to cover more beneficiaries. Beginning in 2028, states also would be required to pay a portion of food benefit costs, which are now fully paid by the federal government.

Residents of high-tax states

Lawmakers representing high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California pressed to increase a limit on the deduction for state and local taxes first imposed to help pay for Trump’s 2017 tax law. But House Republicans’ plan to raise the limit to $30,000 — up from the current $10,000 — fell far short of demands.

Negotiations are still underway and the disappointed lawmakers have plenty of leverage. House Speaker Mike Johnson said a SALT deal is likely Wednesday. House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith has criticized the demands for an even bigger SALT deduction, saying that a $30,000 cap covers more than 90% of the constituents in high-tax districts.

The limit would expire entirely at the end of the year without new legislation and because of the small Republican majority just a few lawmakers from high-tax states could block the House bill if they withhold their votes, as they have threatened to do.

Renewable energy

Clean energy industries would be hit by the Republican plan, which would roll back many provisions of former President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law. 

A tax credit for solar panels and other clean energy systems would be phased out, as would investment and production tax credits for wind, solar and other clean electricity production. Tax credits for the production of nuclear power and hydrogen production also would be phased out. 

Electric vehicle makers

Tesla Inc., General Motors Co. and other electric vehicle makers would be hit by elimination of a consumer tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of electric vehicles. 

The GOP proposal also ends tax credits for used and commercial electric vehicles. 

Elite universities

Add tax bills to the escalating battle the Trump administration and Republicans are waging against elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia.

Private colleges and universities with at least 500 students and endowments exceeding $2 million per student would pay a rate of 21% on net investment income, up from the current tax of 1.4%. That includes Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and MIT.

But the plan won’t only impact the wealthiest private colleges. Colleges with endowments over $750,000 to $1.25 million per pupil will pay a 7% tax, while colleges with endowments over $1.25 million per student but below $2 million would pay 14%. Religious institutions are exempted.

Private foundations

Private foundations also would face an escalating tax based on their size: 2.78% for private foundations with assets between $50 million and $250 million, 5% for entities with assets between $250 million and $5 billion; and 10% for foundations with assets of at least $5 billion, such as the Gates Foundation, a longtime target for Republicans.

Immigrants

Several provisions would raise taxes on immigrants. That includes a new 5% tax on transfers of money to foreign countries, known as remittances. Many immigrants in the U.S. send money to relatives in their countries of origin. U.S. citizens could apply for credits to offset that cost.

The proposal also would restrict some immigrants’ access to tax credits for health coverage premiums. The change would prevent immigrants granted asylum or temporary protected status from accessing those credits.

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Accounting

Total college enrollment rose 3.2%

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Total postsecondary spring enrollment grew 3.2% year-over-year, according to a report.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center published the latest edition of its Current Term Enrollment Estimates series, which provides final enrollment estimates for the fall and spring terms.

The report found that undergraduate enrollment grew 3.5% and reached 15.3 million students, but remains below pre-pandemic levels (378,000 less students). Graduate enrollment also increased to 7.2%, higher than in 2020 (209,000 more students).

Graduation photo

(Read more: Undergraduate accounting enrollment rose 12%)

Community colleges saw the largest growth in enrollment (5.4%), and enrollment increased for all undergraduate credential types. Bachelor’s and associate programs grew 2.1% and 6.3%, respectively, but remain below pre-pandemic levels. 

Most ethnoracial groups saw increases in enrollment this spring, with Black and multiracial undergraduate students seeing the largest growth (10.3% and 8.5%, respectively). The number of undergraduate students in their twenties also increased. Enrollment of students between the ages of 21 and 24 grew 3.2%, and enrollment for students between 25 and 29 grew 5.9%.

For the third consecutive year, high vocational public two-years had substantial growth in enrollment, increasing 11.7% from 2023 to 2024. Enrollment at these trade-focused institutions have increased nearly 20% since pre-pandemic levels.

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Accounting

Interim guidance from the IRS simplifies corporate AMT

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Jordan Vonderhaar/Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2025-27, which provides interim guidance on an optional simplified method for determining an applicable corporation for the corporate alternative minimum tax.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 amended Sec. 55 to impose the CAMT based on the “adjusted financial statement income” of an “applicable corporation” for taxable years beginning in 2023. 

Among other details, proposed regs provide that “applicable corporation” means any corporation (other than an S corp, a regulated investment company or a REIT) that meets either of two average annual AFSI tests depending on financial statement net operating losses for three taxable years and whether the corporation is a member of a foreign-parented multinational group.

Prior to the publication of any final regulations relating to the CAMT, the Treasury and the IRS will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking. Notice 2025-27 will be in IRB: 2025-26, dated June 23.

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Accounting

In the blogs: Whiplash | Accounting Today

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Conquering tariffs; bracing for notices; FBAR penalty timing; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Whiplash

Number-crunching

  • Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): “7-Figure Firm, 4-Hour Workweek: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself.”
  • The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Sarah, a U.S. citizen who moved to London for work in 2024. On May 15, 2025, it hit her that she forgot to file her 2024 U.S. return. Was she required to file her 2024 taxes by April 15?
  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Anteing up with Uncle Sam: The World Series of Poker is back, and one major change this year involves players from Russia and Hungary. After suspension of tax treaties with those nations, players will have 30% of winnings withheld. 
  • Parametric (https://www.parametricportfolio.com/blog): Direct indexing seems to come with a common misunderstanding: On the performance statement, conflating the value of harvested losses with returns. 

Problems brewing

  • Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): No chill is chillier than the client’s at the mailbox when an IRS notice appears out of the blue. How you can educate — and warn — them about the various notices everybody’s that favorite agency might send.
  • Dean Dorton (https://deandorton.com/insights/): Perhaps because they can be founded on trust, your nonprofit clients are especially vulnerable to fraud.
  • Global Taxes (https://www.globaltaxes.com/blog.php): When it’s your time, it’s your time: The clock starts on FBAR penalties when the tax forms are due and not when penalties are assessed — and even the death of the taxpayer doesn’t extend the deadline.
  • TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): Your e-commerce clients can muck up sales tax obligations in many ways. How some of the seeds of trouble might hide in their own billing system.
  • Sovos (https://sovos.com/blog/): What’s up with the five states that don’t have a sales tax?
  • Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): Humans are still needed to handle sales tax complexity, with real-world examples.
  • Wiss (https://wiss.com/insights/read/): A business — and business-advising — success story from a California chicken eatery.

Almost half done

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